Today I will be speaking to environmental leaders throughout the City University of New York (CUNY) system, an institution that teaches almost half a million students on 23 campuses. We will be at the Hunter College campus here in the Upper East Side celebrating Earth Day and inspiring each other to do more to achieve environmental sustainability. The event was organized by Hunter College student David Weinberger and is entitled the Leaders in Environmental Action Forum (LEAF).
Bringing together students and faculty from Queens College, Brooklyn College, CUNY Law, Baruch College and others, the event will begin at 3pm in Room 436 of Hunter North with a panel engineered to inspire further student involvement and innovation to accomplish sustainability goals such as the PlaNYC goal of 30% reduction in campus greenhouse gas emissions by 2017.
Panelists include CUNY students and staff, environmental documentary filmmaker Gianna Savoie, and myself, Director of the nonprofit Sustainable Energy Transition (SETenergy.org).
One highlight of the event for me is panelist and Hunter College student Noah Ginsburg who will describe progress in the deployment of 3 kW of solar power on Hunter College’s rooftop. He helped to start an initiative last Fall to get funding for a solar demonstration site on one of the four campus buildings. And by Earth Day on Wednesday, they had raised the necessary $35,000 to deploy the solar and begin an educational program that makes the project a public learning site for fellow CUNY students and the community.
While a 3 kW system will not power the whole building by any means, the educational component will help the people of New York City get to know solar power. And the site aims to help catalyze much more solar at Hunter College (up to ~150 kW) and throughout the city (scores of MW). Congratulations Noah and the whole team at Hunter Solar Project! I look forward to visiting the solar array myself once it is installed this Fall.
After Noah speaks, I will share some details about two of SET’s programs:
• the Solar College Initiative – helping campuses in New York, New Jersey and North Carolina accelerate the deployment of solar.
• Manhattan Bike Share – supporting the development of a convenient, green bicycle share throughout interested neighborhoods of New York City
Here’s to a great event later today!
Tags: climate change, CUNY, global warming, Hunter College, renewables, solar energy